Amazon Stops Selling Press-to-Order Dash Buttons (cnet.com)

Amazon's physical Dash buttons are no more. The e-commerce giant has stopped selling its tap-to-order Dash buttons as of February 28th. From a report: If you still proudly use a Dash button (or a few dozen), don't worry: Amazon plans to continue supporting new orders through existing Dash buttons so long as the public keeps using them. So what killed the Dash button's future? Well, by Amazon's telling, the device was a victim of its own success, since it helped nudge forward the concept of the connected home to what it is today. Daniel Rausch, an Amazon vice president who helped grow the Dash program from its start, said that back in early 2015, when the Dash button first came out, there were far fewer options for connected home gadgets. Amazon workers were trying to figure out a way "to make shopping disappear" for grocery list items like paper towels and printer ink and whatever else is pretty not-fun to go out and buy, Rausch said.

Comments

install an always listening microphone instead

[Anonymous Coward]

So I think what they are getting at is that instead of a button you should just be putting an always-listening microphone in your house instead and use that to reorder. Clearly that has to be what they mean, because I can't seriously believe that they expect the replenish service they mention to be a reasonable replacement for 90% of the stuff people use dash buttons for. Pistaccios...are you seriously going to get self sensing storage jars for each individual type of food? Batteries...how the hell is it going to know how many batteries you've gone though. Are you supposed to buy a self sensing battery holder to handle this? They even have all these partnerships with appliance manufacturers, but seriously that's less than 1% of the market that has these devices, and most won't be replaced for 5 to 15 years.

So no, I can only assume the stupid microphones are supposed to be the replacement. No thanks.

Never understood those

[cascadingstylesheet]

At least with a subscription, you get a chance to review prices and see if you want to go through with it.

Seriously, press a button and get it sent to you at some random current price?

Re:What a stupid idea that was

[aicrules]

Why is toilet paper a meaningful use case for you and not anything else you buy regularly? It is equivalent to writing something on your shopping list, but instead of having to remember to do that and then wait till you're actually at the store, you just push a button and it ends up on your doorstep a couple days later. Toilet paper, laundry detergent, toothpaste, trash bags, dish soap, just go through your place of residence and think about all the things you buy repeatedly and it could be used for that. Doesn't mean it was a great method, but if you see it useful for one item, you probably would have found use for it on many items.

Dash, meet Alexa

[SuperKendall]

The real problem here is simply that a Dash button gives you one less reason to consider an Alexa device.

So, goodby Dash.